Could Stephen Leaney earn a spot in the British Open?

Update (12/01/11): Stephen Leaney has missed out on a place in the British Open after losing a playoff for third place on the second extra hole. Matthew Millar, Kurt Barnes and Rick Kulacz qualified for The Open Championship at St.George’s in July.

Stephen Leaney could well be considered Australia’s golf journeyman. He has experienced the highs of the golf game and plenty of lows. He is currently in second spot at the Australasian qualifying tournament for the 2011 British Open at Kingston Heath today and needs a top-3 finish to qualify for a start.

It wasn’t that long ago Stephen Leaney was mixing it with the best players in the world. He won four times on the European Tour, finished second at the US Open in 2003 and earned over US$4.5million in total on the PGA Tour.

He has suffered his fair share of lows across his golf career though. He twice missed out on his PGA Tour card by a shot at qualifying and was diagnosed with vertigo in 2008. A dietary change, removing dairy his intake of dairy products solved the problem believe it or not and he’s been battling to rescue his golf career ever since.

Currently he holds no International tour cards at all and a spot in the British Open field at Royal St.George’s in July would be a huge boost to his confidence.